Frankline Ndifor, A popular Cameroonian Pastor has died from COVID-19 barely a week after contracting the disease he claimed he could cure.
The Pastor who was also a presidential candidate in the country’s last presidential election, had laid hands and prayed for the healing of some Coronavirus patients who turned up at the premises of his Kingship International Ministries Church.
Dr Gaelle Nnanga who was called to treat Ndifor after he started suffering severe respiratory difficulties less than a week after falling ill with the virus, told Voice of America that the Pastor died less than 10 minutes after receiving treatment.
Shortly after Pastor Frankline Ndifor died, his supporters addressed him as a ‘prophet’ and blocked entrance to his home in the capital city of Douala for eight hours on Saturday as medical staff tried to retrieve his body.
The Governor of the coastal region said a police force had to be deployed when supporters blocked the entrance to his home and claimed the pastor was on a spiritual retreat with God so could not be buried. They reportedly sang and prayed for his resurrection throughout last weekend.
However after security operatives gained entrance into the late Pastor’s apartment, his corpse was retrieved and buried in front of his residence by officials of Cameroon’s COVID-19 response team.
One of the late Pastor’s followers, Rigobert Che confirmed that the “prophet” prayed for him and several others diagnosed with COVID-19 last Wednesday. He said;
“This is a pastor that has been laying hands [on the sick] and claiming that he cures COVID-19.
“If you, the person that claims that you are curing COVID-19, you are dead, what about the fellow people that were affected by the COVID-19? Now that he is dead, I do not know how the people that he was laying hands on will be healed.”
Health officials are now asking all those who came in contact with the pastor to report to hospitals to be tested for COVID-19.
Ndifor came 7th out of nine candidates in 2018’s presidential election with 23,687 votes. There have been 3,529 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 140 deaths in Cameroon.
